


The Fall Of Rey

by scavengerscorner (idrilhadhafang)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark Rey (Star Wars), Dark Romance, Dark Side Rey, Force Bond (Star Wars), Kylo uses a different tactic, Multi, eventual polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-27 04:46:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17760035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/scavengerscorner
Summary: One choice on the Supremacy may affect the fate of the galaxy.





	1. Take The Plunge

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo tries an alternate tactic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

“The fleet!” Rey said. An idea struck her, and she couldn’t help but feel once more what Snoke tried to take away from her showing the escape pods ruthlessly shot down. “There’s still time to save the fleet!”

But Ben didn’t seem to be listening in that moment. He seemed to be lost, like he was in a trance or a dream, staring at the remains of Snoke where Anakin’s lightsaber had bisected him. His breathing was almost shallow in nature. 

“Ben?” Rey said, softly. She had to draw him out of his trance. She simply had to. 

“It’s time to let all things die,” Ben said, and it wasn’t Ben there. It wasn’t even Kylo. “Snoke, Skywalker, the Rebels, the Sith, the Jedi...let it all die.” He held out a hand. “Rey.” The way he said her name shouldn’t have felt so right on his lips. “I want you to join me. We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy!”

He sounded so impassioned in that moment. So very inflamed. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. “Please, don’t do this, Ben,” Rey said, and her eyes — they were practically streaming. “Please, don’t go this way.”

”No, no, you’re still holding on! Let go.” 

Silence. It was after a while that Kylo spoke again. “You remember that fight in the forest, don’t you?”

”Too well.” Rey’s tears were starting to dry, if slightly. Her eyes could make out, through the tears, the scar she had left on Kylo’s cheek. On Ben’s. She regretted it now; she hadn’t regretted why she fought, but... 

“I meant every word. I wanted to train you.” Kylo stepped forward. In that moment, he looked so very vulnerable. “It wasn’t just because of your power. Snoke wanted me for my power, until he thought I wasn’t useful to him anymore.” A beat. “On Takodana, the moment I sensed you, I knew there was someone as lost and alone as I was. You’d run away from Maz’s palace, hadn’t you? Because it brought up memories you couldn’t bear.”

Rey could remember. And she could remember how she had felt the loneliness in the figure who had hurt her — at least when she pushed him out. The man in his memories...he had meant something to him. 

They were both lonely. She could identify with that. 

Kylo continued. "Skywalker...he didn’t train you. But I can. I promise you.”

Rey hesitated. Was this what Maz had meant, when she said that the belonging wasn’t behind her, but ahead? As Kylo’s apprentice, tapping further into her potential that had been cruelly denied her? Finding someone who had been as lonely as she had been, and becoming...one with him? 

She didn’t know. And yet, she thought of those in the Resistance escape pods. Being shot down. If she joined Kylo, would she be as good as murdering them? And then there was the fact that she would be failing in her mission to save Ben. 

To save Ben, where his uncle had refused to do so. 

Her hand trembled even as she reached out towards Ben’s own. She thought of the training she still needed, how rotten Luke had proved to be, to the core. Nothing like learning the truth to make the galaxy seem less in need of a legend.

And yet...

There were still good people. Finn. General Organa. Others. 

They still needed her. 

So did Ben. 

An idea struck her then. It was foolish, but maybe she could have both? 

“I’ll join you,” Rey said. “If you spare the others. I know you’re still capable of that, Ben. I know there’s a part of you that still believes in compassion...and mercy.”

”These people aren’t harmless,” Kylo said. “They’re terrorists.”

”All of them?” Rey said. “And they’re not the ones firing on unarmed escape pods.” A beat. “I can’t believe that the man with so much conflict in him is incapable of at least a pinprick of mercy. Of charity.”

Kylo actually looked stricken, like he hadn’t expected her to say that. 

Silence reigned. Rey could feel lives all but snuffed out through the Force...one by one. How long would Kylo wait?

Finally, Kylo walked towards the throne, sat down. Rey followed, wondering what he would do next. And Kylo drew up a comlink, before speaking into it. “This is Kylo Ren of the First Order — Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, I should say. I command you, General Hux, to stand down. We’re finished.”

A slimy, regal-sounding voice came over the comlink. “You think you, of all people, can give me orders? Snoke — ”

Kylo constricted his other hand, and to Rey’s horror, the sounds of choking and gagging and struggling echoed over the comlink. “The Supreme Leader,” Kylo said coldly, “Is dead.”

Hux’s voice was strained. “Long...live...the Supreme Leader...”

Kylo released his hand. “Good. Meet me at my shuttle. We have...things to discuss.”

”Yes,” Hux said, and Rey could sense the loathing in his voice. “Supreme Leader.”

The communication ended. Rey turned to Kylo. “You didn’t have to choke him,” she said. 

“He’ll require more than that to be kept on his leash,” Kylo said. 

Rey shook her head. “Violence isn’t the solution. I think I’ve had my fill of violence for the day, Kylo.”

Something in her hurt calling him Kylo again. And yet...what else could she call him? 

“The Resistance...will you hurt them?”

”We’ll have to see,” Kylo said. “I’m not a man who goes back on my word. If they surrender...well, we’ll see where that goes from there. If they fight...they’ve got a fight. Come on. My shuttle’s waiting.”

They walked to the shuttle, and Rey knew she had to be strong for the trials ahead. 


	2. Battle Cry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Negotiations on Crait go wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

The shuttle reached the planet of Crait, even as Rey stood beside Kylo. Everything about it — if not for how barren and overall lifeless it seemed, Rey would have almost thought that it was a snow planet.  
  
“It’s not snow,” Kylo said softly. “It’s salt.” A beat. “Though all things considered, it is easy to mistake it for snow.”  
  
”You’ve been here before?” Rey said.  
  
Kylo shook his head. “I heard stories about it. I never went, of course. I never had...time.” And Rey knew that he was talking about how much time Luke had sacrificed when he’d thought of killing him. Only a thought, which changed the course of the future so much.  
  
“We’ll have to speak with them,” Rey said. “Persuade them to stop the fighting.”  
  
”They won’t surrender. They’re too convinced, like so many monsters, that they’re the heroes.”  
  
”We can still stop this.”  
  
Kylo paused. Then, “We’ll have to see.”  
  
They advanced closer to some sort of base, one with massive durasteel doors. Finally, they were close enough, and the shuttle touched down. Touched down on the planet, and Kylo moved to disembark. Hux tried to stop him, only for Kylo to flick him against a wall like he was nothing.  
  
They headed down the loading ramp, the harsh winds of Crait whipping Rey’s hair around her face. It wasn’t a snow planet, and yet it felt cold. More than that was what the others would think. Finn, for example.  
  
“Forget him,” Kylo said softly. “He would never understand.”  
  
Rey couldn’t help but be unsettled by how easily Kylo slipped inside her head. She supposed that she should be used to it, with the Force Bond. It didn’t make it any less unsettling, considering the first time that he’d done it.  
  
“Don’t do that,” she said.  
  
Kylo didn’t say anything. Merely nodded. Rey couldn’t help but be relieved. She doubted there was a time when she wouldn’t give Kylo’s...abilities some degree of a wide berth.  
  
They paused outside the doors. Massive doors. Kylo sighed. “We’ll have to make ourselves known somehow,” he said.  
  
Rey nodded.  
  
There was some sort of comm system on the door, and Rey walked over towards it. She fiddled with it. Fiddled with it until it sprang to life. And she spoke.  
  
“It’s me, Rey. I’m ordering you to stand down. We don’t have to fight anymore. There’s still a chance that we can have peace.”  
  
Rey paused. She wasn’t foolish — she knew that she had good as uncovered a planetary terminator. Something that could either end the war quickly or cause more chaos.  
  
Then General Organa’s voice crackled over the comm. “This is General Leia Organa of the Resistance. And I will tell you that we are not here to negotiate with terrorists and war criminals like the ones you’ve allied yourself with.”  
  
Leia. The woman who Rey has seen as almost the mother she hadn’t had...she was the first person to reject her. Her heart sank, but she kept trying. “Your son’s here. He was the one who called off attacks on the Resistance escape pods. I helped him. We both made sure General Hux couldn’t do any more damage.” A beat. “Is that what a war criminal or a terrorist would do, General Organa, or have you been fighting this war too long?”

Silence reigned over the communications system. Then, “He...stopped this?”

Rey nodded. “He did. I requested that he do it.”

Silence again. 

Then, finally, Leia spoke. “I’ll meet you outside.”

It was in that moment that the doors, massive and almost impenetrable-looking, opened. General Organa, dressed in dark blue, strode outside, and Rey heard Kylo’s breathing hitch audibly. Images flashed across their bond, images of General Organa getting blasted into space, and Kylo’s horror —

She turned to look at him, worried. Kylo didn’t say anything. Just a nod.

And it was in that moment Rey saw someone else behind the General. Luke, haggard still, ragged, with a look of utter cold in his eyes...

Rey’s blood froze in that moment, and Kylo...Kylo actually looked horrified, then almost feral in his fury. “You...you brought him here, didn’t you?”

”Ben, listen to me,” Leia said.

”I knew you always wanted me dead!” Kylo’s voice — it was like any trace of attempted composure was gone. “I knew you always hated me; you think I didn’t overhear you and my father...talking about how much you hated me? You think I wasn’t listening? No wonder you tried to hand me over to _him;_ you knew that he was going to kill me, and now you brought him here to finish the job!”

He took a deep breath. “It seems that the only one who believed in me, in my family, was my father,” Kylo said. “In terms of wanting revenge...he would have disappointed you.”

Kylo drew his lightsaber. Rey reached over towards him, trying to calm him, only for him to turn towards her. “I’ll destroy him first,” he said. “And I’ll make sure it hurts.”

Leia took a deep breath. “This isn’t me, Ben, but I swear if you make one move towards Luke...”

Kylo reached out and, with the Force, froze her. Luke, meanwhile, stood there with not so much as a look of pity on his face. Maybe there was no pity in there at all, only anger and hate. 

“Not bad,” he said evenly, “For a talentless man like you.” A beat. “It seems I failed both of you.”

”You did, Luke,” Rey said. “You failed us by not giving us a chance to prove ourselves. You failed by deciding Vader could be redeemed — ”

”Don’t you even speak his name,” Luke said.

Rey continued. “Why was Vader redeemable and Ben not so? You didn’t just fail us; you failed yourself. The legend of Luke Skywalker that you hate so much...I believed in it. Vader would hate you if he knew what you became.”

Luke actually bristled. “Stop saying his name.”

”Why couldn’t you save Ben?”

Now Luke actually looked helpless. “It was for everyone’s good,” he said.

”When he hadn’t even done anything? I find that hard to believe.” A beat. “And I promise you, you’re going to pay for creating Kylo Ren.”

They drew their lightsabers, and they dueled. There was something wrong, something off, about Luke. Even with using her anger as she usually did, Luke just kept dodging and ducking, at least as best he could considering that there were two blades coming at him. Finally, one of Rey’s blades passed through thin air.

Wait.

”It’s a Force projection,” Kylo said. 

Rey nodded. She had read a bit about it in the Jedi texts while she had been in hyperspace to the Supremacy. Now...if she could disrupt Luke’s concentration somehow...

”You’re not going to win, Luke,” she said. “The Resistance isn’t going to win. You want them to, but they won’t. And even if you do win, who says the Resistance is going to accept the man who created Kylo Ren?”

”I did not...create him...”

”Kylo made his choices. So did you. Interesting how you’re exempt from your choices, isn’t it?” Rey already felt terrible saying it, but she had to win this duel somehow.

”I’m...nothing like him...”

”You’re a hypocrite and pathetic.” Already, Rey could see the flickering of Luke’s projection. Good. She continued. “And a waste of our time.”

She fought. Kylo fought. Luke fought. Luke’s movements seemed more erratic, more uncertain. It made it easier, and when he fell, when he faded out of existence, Rey was shaking herself. She had killed before. Not like this, though. Cold, calculated...

Leia had broken free of her frozen state, staring at Rey and Kylo in horror and shock. Then, “You killed him.”

”He deserved it.” Rey said, and was surprised to know how much she meant it. “It was justice, Leia.”

”You know nothing of justice.” Leia raised her blaster, only for Kylo to disarm her with a flick of his wrist. Rey turned to look at him. “What are we going to do with her?”

”She and the Resistance are coming with us.”

And even taking the Resistance onboard, seeing the look of shock and betrayal in Finn’s eyes...Rey wondered if she was doing the right thing.


End file.
